Morele oordeelsvorming door commissarissen en toezichthouders, en de relatie met morele identiteit en geslacht

Executive and supervisory directors at the top of companies and organizations regularly have to make decisions in which they have to weigh conflicting moral norms and the interests of various stakeholders. These considerations and decisions are often criticized, even called immoral or unethical. This study investigates the relationship between moral identity and gender of supervisory directors and their moral judgment. In moral judgment we distinguish (1) utilitarian considerations, in which different interests are weighed, in a rational process, and (2) deontological considerations, in which consistency with moral norms is decisive, in a more emotional process. In our research among 145 Dutch supervisory directors, moral identity was measured. With nine moral dilemmas and the process dissociation procedure, separate scores were calculated for utilitarian and deontological considerations. The private part of moral identity (internalization) and the gender of the commissioners proved to be predictive for deontological considerations, but not for utilitarian considerations. Male and female supervisory directors therefore mainly differed in the fast, more intuitive process of deontological moral judgment.